A path planner may be used to determine one or more path plans for a vehicle to cover a work area. The work area may represent a field for growing a crop or other vegetation. The vehicle may need to traverse the entire work area or a portion thereof to plant a crop (or precursor thereto), to treat a crop (or precursor thereto), to harvest a crop, or to perform another task associated with the crop or vegetation, for example. If the path plan is limited to linear rows, the execution of the path plan may consume more energy than desired to traverse sloped terrain or to cover a given work area in an energy efficient manner. Accordingly, there is a need for a system and a method for applying a path plan with a spiral component for the vehicle to the work area.